Thursday 17th September 2026, 4.25pm (day 5,502)
Back hone. And here was the weather: a dozen of these seemed to sweep through the valley today. What the hell, I had to go back to work.
The rain sweeps through
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Urban scene
Composition with seats and van
Monday 14th September 2026, 1.10pm (day 5,499)
As seen on one side of the Eglise St. Jean-de-Grund, from atop one of Luxembourg’s dizzying verticals; specifically, the Rocher du Bock.
No further comment on the image itself, but I must note that something happened today which has been threatened before but never quite happened over the previous 5,499 days of this blog. Namely that I had a total camera breakdown thanks to a completely dead battery — which I could not replace today because it’s basically too old and the shop I tried did not stock it. It will therefore be out of action at least until I get home, although the kit needed replacing anyway (the camera I am presently using was always just stop-gap equipment). It’s just as well that phones take pictures these days, otherwise the blog would have ended today — and expect at least the next couple to be taken with my Google Pixel 6, itself getting a little knackered these days. Hi-tech photography this is not.
Luxembourg City
Saturday 12th September 2026, 11.10am (day 5,497)
While this view is a bit “picture postcard” it would have been unreasonable not to include such a shot from this stay, for Luxembourg is a very attractive and dramatically-sited city, built around two deep gorges carved into sandstone plateaus. Pictorially, it certainly works.
Blackfriars station
Wednesday 9th September 2026, 5.30pm (day 5,494)
I have been to a few of the world’s railway stations and the view from Blackfriars, built on a bridge over the Thames, is surely one of the best there is from any station. Turning one’s back on the trains to concentrate on it is quite logical.
On Grosvenor Street
Thursday 3rd September 2026, 3.35pm (day 5,488)
She looks mildly disapproving, I think. But is the look for the pedestrian, or the photographer? Another one of the blue-themed pictures that have appeared over the last few days.
China Lane
Sunday 16th August 2026, 10.55am (day 5,470)
The alley of China Lane lies on the shortest walking route between Victoria and Piccadilly stations in Manchester and when I’m walking between them — as I was this morning — it is always worth looking down to see if the opportunity arises for a shot — specifically, this one. Why is it called China Lane? No idea, but as it is lined with warehouses and located right beside Piccadilly Basin on the canal, maybe it’s a tea reference.
Clifton Suspension Bridge
Wednesday 5th August 2026, 1.30pm (day 5,459)
Up until Tuesday afternoon Bristol was the largest city in the UK that I had never previously visited, but it can now pass on that honour to Coventry. A first full day here revealed many things of interest but to illustrate them I pick what is almost certainly the city’s most depicted feature. Why not, though? I am partial to a good bridge and in the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the place certainly has one of those: this is an extremely handsome and impressive construction, even now. The road deck is nearly 250 feet above the water below — how does one even start going about such an enterprise? OK, build the towers first, but then what? But that is why I am not or never will be Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed it — though did not live to see it completed.
Kiveton Park
Friday 31st July 2026, 2.30pm (day 5,454)
I admire this kind of large-scale decrepitude and collapse. It is not that the whole of Kiveton Park Industrial Estate looks like this, but nevertheless, in my opinion this was the best-looking corner of it. Somehow it seems strange that this hangar is eroding from the bottom up rather than the other way around, but see for yourselves. (Pictured on my latest County Top walk — see the other blog.)
Whirligig
Wednesday 29th July 2026, 5.05pm (day 5,452)
The thing about whirligigs is that if they’re working, one can’t get a decent photo of them. Only when they stop moving can the capture be made: but then it’s not whirling, is it? You see, these are the kinds of things that I drift into thinking about while sitting in the pub at the end of a day’s writing (and most of my days are that at the moment). Everything I took today seemed to be some sort of abstract.
The empty table
Monday 27th July 2026, 11.40am (day 5,450)
Why did the tipping of this chair bring to my mind a feeling of slight melancholy, as if the summer is over and all to come is the decline? I don’t know, but somehow, it does. Even if it is still July and (at least at 11:40am) the sun was still shining…
Being 42 